Knocked Out
by teja kirana
Summary: Modern day AU. Actually got inspired by the fanfic The Worst Song Ever by ShakespeareFreak. One-shot.


Disclaimer: I own nobody from this Fiction. All characters used in the fiction belongs to Victor Hugo and the display of them are based on the works of Disney.

…

The air was damp tonight since it had been raining heavily from the evening earlier. Puddles were everywhere outside the public library and the dim lit street lights were not helping to the already dangerous looking are to seem a little bit safe. Frollo hurriedly put on his coat after looking at the late hour and started to walk to his car. Once in a while, dogs howling could be heard and glimpse of homeless people could be seen running for shelter. "Is there nothing the council members are doing regarding this unsafe library area?" he puffed as he glanced over the dark alley just around the corner of the library. _'Wait, I am one of the city council members. What have I done to repair this?'_

By the time Frollo reached his car, a shrill sound of a female voice followed by a series of cackles of a couple of teenage boys fill his ears and he almost snorted in disgust by the act of nowadays teenagers. It was insanely outrageous how the area of the public library could get when the sun set. He was just about to reach for his keys when he felt a pair of arms flung around his waist and a figure of a female body pressed against his back.

"Oh, darling! You have no idea how relieved I am to have finally found you!" said person almost cooed as loud as she can against his coat.

This woman was either mad, or she must have mistaken him for someone else. He spun around, prepared to give the woman, whoever she was a disappointing truth that he was not her _darling_ when he caught himself almost petrified by the flash of her brilliant green eyes. _'Those eyes, are there any more bewitching things that I could possibly lay my eyes upon in my life?'_ he asked himself before he was snapped from his own thoughts by the approaching of a couple of footsteps and the familiar cackle of the teenage boys he heard earlier.

Frollo was fast to put the sudden engagement of the woman's arms around him and the sheer fear screaming from her eyes together. She was escaping from these hormone-driven boys and Frollo had no idea how to help her other than willed himself to her play. The woman, having her choice made, put her arms around his neck and lifted herself just enough that her lips reached his ear and whispered something that sent chills down his spine. "Please, don't give me away." with that said, the woman went limp in his arms and he tore his eyes from the poorly lighted woman to look at the boys. He was pretty sure the boys were now scared for their lives upon seeing his naturally mysterious look because all he did to send the boys scrambling away was saying, "What have you done to her?"

…

' _Esmeralda. Why do I get the feeling I've heard it before?'_ He read the name card he found in the purse the woman was carrying with her. Frollo had long ago tucked her in his bed when he got home. He was relieved that the woman was just passed out from exhaustion. God knows how far she had ran from the goons before she ran into him. He went on to search for something more useful to contact someone who might be worried about her, her mobile phone maybe. He eventually found her phone and felt accomplished with himself, only to have it short lived. "Of course your battery will be dead by the midnight. Like all magic and miracles do." he grunted as he went on rummaging her purse. _'Thank you for bringing your charger, too.'_ he thought when he found her charger. He instantly plugged her phone to her charger and wonder what should he do with a stranger being in his bed on a Friday night. He decided to wash himself after a while of contemplation and achieving nothing.

The next morning, Frollo was woken up by the delicious smell he had never smell coming from his kitchen. Actually, he was bolted to his awakening from the thought of someone has broken into his abode and took advantage of his well-supplied kitchen. His abrupt actions to get to the kitchen resulted in his leg hitting the coffee table nearby the couch he crashed in last night and brought the attention of whomever was in the kitchen.

"Oh, you're awake. I'm sorry that I'm using your kitchen without your permission. I just thought that it's wrong for to just leave." the woman from yesterday emerged from his kitchen counter, putting down his platters, now filled with eggs and what-have-you-for-breakfast. "Although, I do have to run for my audition later today, so I thought I'd get to know you for a bit before I go." There. Those brilliant green eyes again.

Frollo stood there without saying anything for a moment just to take in the appearance of the woman he brought in last night. Against the morning sunlight that shone upon her bronze skin, the thickness of her amazing dark hair, and the come hither eyes of hers, this woman looked exactly like any of the Enchantress depicted in the fictional books he came across in the library. She looked very different from last night. _'Probably because of the lights,_ ' he reasoned. He thanked his lucky stars that his stoic look prevented him from looking like a fool in front of her at the moment.

"Of course, I am Esmeralda." she broke the momentary silence and gestured for him to sit on a chair while she did the same before continuing. "I don't know if I can thank you enough for your kindness last night. Remind me again not to take that same route on my way back home. You never know what kind of creep that'll follow you from work." she pushed him a plate of eggs, bacons, a croissant and a waffle. "I don't know what you usually have for breakfast, so I just figured." she smiled nervously and when he did not respond, another wave of guilt washed over her. "Or are you the cereal kind of guy? Oh, I'm so sorry for all these waste, then."

Frollo did not know why he did that. He grabbed her hand as she was about to turn in disappointment in herself. He let go of her hand as soon as he grabbed it because of the surge of tingling he felt when he touched her. _'What's that?'_ he asked himself. "How can you have time for all these?" he managed to ask calmly when he finally regained his composure. He reached for his fork and took a bit of everything on the plate. They all tasted as good as they look.

"I worked as a cook for a long time, once." she answered, taking a bite for herself. "You charged my phone. Thank you." she added.

"It's no wonder, then." he gave a small smile. "Someone might be worried about you. I was about to call someone from your phone when I found that the battery's dead." he told her.

"That's actually very generous of you. What's your name?" she asked.

"Claude Frollo." he replied. He intended to ask her more questions when he was interrupted by her cell phone ringing.

Esmeralda was shocked herself when she saw the caller ID. "Oh gosh! I promised Pierre that I'll meet him before the audition." She was frantically gathering her stuffs before went on to answer her phone. "Hello." she greeted the other end. "I know, I'm sorry! I'm on my way." she apologized, hung up the phone and turned her attention to him, looking at him with a simple look, but succeeded to make his heart banged violently against his chest. "I'm sorry, I really have to go." she started rummaging her purse for something. I know I said I'd like to get to know you, and I still do. So here, call me whenever you're free." she handed him her name card and with an apologetic smile, she scram for the door, only to return and gave him a quick and chaste peck on his cheek before she sprinted out of his place.

"Esmeralda. Court of Miracles. Bar and Bistro." he read out loud in his lone abode and then it struck him. "She's the bartender!" he exclaimed, having realized that the girl that he had been swooning over for months now since he stepped into the bar was in his bed last night. _'Blast that dim lit library street!'_ he grunted. There was no use for him to go after her now, she was probably half the way for her date with Pierre, and as far as he knew from experience, Saturday was her day off back at the bar too. "I have to wait, then, again." he said as he fiddled with her name card before putting it into his wallet.

…

"Shut up. Take a seat and spill." Pierre Gringoire said curtly when Esmeralda finally arrived at the café fifteen minutes later than she had promised him. His outfit for the day practically screamed "I'm gay, deal with it." as he put back his wandering strand of hair back to its place among his perfectly coiffed hair.

Esmeralda gave no attention to her best friend since forever and took her time to order her usual coffee and donut. "I crashed at a dude's last night." she started, already receiving a sharp gasp from her friend. "Not that kind of event." she stated just as sharp before filling in the rest of what had happened.

"So, you know, do you think that by any chance that this dude you're crashing with yesterday is the very same dude you've been bothering me with when and how to talk to from the bar?" Pierre asked while playfully poking at her shoulder.

"Not likely." she scoffed at the idea. "The man from the bar has this aura, you know."

"Yeah, yeah. I know, you've been saying the same stuff over and over again when I brought him up in our chit chats." Pierre cut her in. "Sophisticated look, slender of figure with back sitting straight on the bar stool, sipping his drink with such control of his soberness. Perfectly coiffed hair, perfectly curved thin lips, perfectly long fingers holding his drink, oh, perfect, lord he is just perfect." he imitated his friend who is now reddening beyond imagination. "And every time where's the _but_ ; there goes," he started again, "He's too old to not be unavailable. He's married. He must be. There are rings on his fingers, although, you can't have that many when you got married, right? Oh he must be gay, then. Never once he tried to chat up with me."

"And you will say, _'Honey, he look nothing of a gay to me. My gaydar would've jingled if he is.'_ " she played along with the role reversal. "I know. I'm a bartender. A gentleman like him, what could he possibly want with someone like me?" she said solemnly. That got her a shot of furious glare from Pierre who wrapped his arms across his chest defensively.

"You are amazing. Any man who caught your attention is lucky to be with you. You're beautiful, inside and outside. His loss if he let you passed him by." he loosened up and grabbed her friend's hand. "The next time you came across him at the bar, promise me you'll talk to him. Settle for his name, if you're that insecure. You are the bartender, for goodness sake! The bar is your domain, if anything, he is the one who should be insecure. That's that, but right now you've got to get yourself to the audition, do your absolute best and knock 'em dead because it's starting in about an hour from now." he told her.

…

A bar fight. Great. Just as Esmeralda had plucked and gathered enough courage to finally talk to the _gentleman_ , a bar fight happened. It didn't last long, but long enough to accidentally knock out the gentleman as he was heading to the gent's. Phoebus, one of the bouncer came to threw him out of the bar when Esmeralda rushed and asked for him to be taken upstairs to her apartment instead. She let Phoebus settled him on her couch and she checked the gentleman for wounds before returning to the bar to finish closing it for the night.

The gentleman was still unconscious by the time she got back to her apartment and the living room is still dark as she left it before. Esmeralda dragged her feet to her bedroom, struggling with tiredness and exhaustion from the work to change into her pajamas and finally threw herself onto her bed. She was just about to doze into deep slumber when she remembered that the gentleman was still in his full suit, crashing on her couch. After much bantering with herself, she forced herself to get out of bed and walked to him. She freed him off his shoes and suit, loosened his tie and unbuttoned the topmost buttons, but she could not bring herself to unbuckle his belt as she got insanely sleepy at that point.

Although she remembered perfectly well to sleep with a belt on was never comfortable in her experience, the sleepiness was eating her alive and with the last remaining energy she got with her, she managed to mutter a soft "I'm sorry, I guess you just have to sleep with your belt on tonight." before allowing herself to land on the other smaller couch in her living room.

By the time Esmeralda woke up next morning, the gentleman was still unconscious and started to worry her. She got up to fetch him a glass of water and continued to loosen the remaining tight articles of clothes he had on. She sprinkled him with some of the water and waited for his respond. She continued softly tapping his cheeks, which succeeded in eliciting a grumpy sound from the man. She sighed in relief and waited for him to gain full consciousness. "Hey buddy. You got knocked out pretty bad last night." she said, finally having her chance to properly look at him. _'Oh my god. It is him. This is freaking me out. Pierre will definitely freak out when he finds out that Claude Frollo is The Gentleman.'_ She smiled apologetically at him as she handed him the glass of water while defiantly trying to maintain her cool. "What's your name?" she asked.

"You don't know my name?" he replied, sounding a little hurt now that he too had recognized her.

"No, I know your name." she stifled a laughter at his sudden change of expression previously. "I wanted to make sure you know your name." she beamed as his sullen expression once again changed. "So what's your name?"

"Claude Frollo." he answered.

"Do you remember mine?"

"Esmeralda." he replied.

"Excellent. My birth name is Agnes, actually. Eventually I got called Esmeralda for you know, the eyes, and the green locket I used to wear around my neck. It shimmered like an emerald in the light." she told him even though she knew that's not really important. "Oh, I'd go to the doctor for that if I were you. You've got no wounds, but I'd still go to the doctor for that." she said before retreating into her kitchen.

Frollo could not believe his eyes. The girl of his dreams is right in front of him. After all the times that he followed her working schedule, waiting patiently behind the line and even passing the chance when he got her in his home, he was led directly into her home. He instantly felt that if he let lose any moment, he will probably lost her to uncertainty forever. So he got ahold of himself and asked her to be excused to her bathroom to fix himself. When he got out, a humble servings of breakfast awaited him with Esmeralda by the edge of the dining table.

"It's not much. I'm not usually well-supplied as you are." she said as she invited him to sit across her.

"What should I call you?" he asked as he sat down. "Agnes or Esmeralda?" he cleared his question when his eyes met her confusion.

"Esmeralda, if you please." she replied, starting on her breakfast as they fill it with the conversations to get to know each other better. Apparently Frollo discovered that she occasionally dropped by the library after her auditions in that side of the city, unfortunately she always left an hour before his arrival which explained why he never ran into her at the library and Esmeralda, now convinced that Frollo was everything Pierre said he was, single and not gay, more than happy to talk some more with him until the evening light shone through her window.

"Wow, look at the time. It's almost my work time." she said.

"But it's Sunday." Frollo was desperately to get her sit down again and spend more time with him.

"Yes, it is Sunday, while you are not in for work today, I have to work." she told him as she moved around the house to get ready.

Frollo saw no point in arguing on the matter so he went on and grabbed his suit and headed for the door.

"Oh, you're going?" Esmeralda asked him as she just done getting herself ready.

"Well, you have to work. At some point, I have to go home and change." he replied casually, sensing that whatever he had been feeling, it was not one sided.

"Indeed." came the curt answer that confirmed Frollo's assumption.

"How about a dinner together sometime?" he asked. A little shot of glee spread through him when he noticed her gradual expression of shock changed into shy. "I'll call you about it, will it be okay?" he asked when she was not giving any verbal respond. Thankfully enough for him, Esmeralda nodded at the second question. He was about to close the door behind him when he heard Esmeralda called out his name. Oh, how he loved the sound of his name rolled out of her tongue.

"Yes?" he turned his head back.

"It's a date, right?" she seemed to gather _her_ courage and shed him from his confidence and left him with the shock and shy.

"Of course." he smiled inwardly and closed the door behind him. Frollo exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding and a mutter escaped from his lips. "Woman, you're gonna be the very end of me."


End file.
